8 tips to reduce stress at the office and stop biting your nails

Work environment can be stressful as well. Especially when one is Office Manager and one comes across 3 new requests per hour, each of them extremely urgent. Not to mention clashes with colleagues, income which may be too low, additional hours, lack or recognition…In short, there is enough to start growing gray hair. Of course, at times, stress can be something positive and encourage you to outdo yourself (the famous “good stress” your mom used to talk about the day before your exam, to make you feel secure, when you were younger). But often stress is useless and harms your well-being and productivity. 

The good news being, you need to implement a few simple things and you can use these at once, to reduce stress. Your nails will thank us. 

Learn to manage your time

We all have 24 hours in a day. However, some people end up doing much more than others, in the same time span. Why? Simply because these people learnt the value of time and how to manage it. Despite the constant request, your time isn’t expandable. Every morning, you need to define your priorities and stick to them, even if it means putting less important tasks on the side. Learning to manage one’s team isn’t something innate, take the time to work on this. 

Sleep like a baby

Yes, we know you sleep but do you get enough sleep? A good night’s sleep gives your brain and body some rest, due to which you are able to tackle the next day’s stress. Experts advise that one needs 6 to 8 hours of sleep each night, so stop camping out in front of Netflix, under 3 in the morning.  

Keep a stress diary

Keeping a diary isn’t just for teenagers, going through puberty. Keeping a diary where you note down all the stressful situations to which you were confronted and the way you reacted, will help you identify the main factors of stress, within you. For example, you can list out all the stressful events you come across and score the stress you felt during these events from a scale of 1 to 10. This way, you’ll get some hindsight and work better on the way you reduce stress, in such situations. 

Take deep breaths

A very simple trick which works well, when one is really stressed is inhaling deeply and slowly releasing it. While we are on the topic, this is what meditation is all about. Try it out, you’ll see.  

Learn to say no

Ahhh, learning to say no when one is Office Manager, is a major issue…Learning to say no can be a difficult task but it’s important to preserve one’s mental health and avoid stress. When you say yes to a request, it’s surely at the cost of other things you had planned, like ordering these famous goodies that your colleagues have been waiting for months. Learning to say no means knowing how to get respect, managing your time better and avoiding stress. 

Grant yourself breaks

We all need vacation. Take the time to use your holidays or compensatory time. To get rest, some prefer taking a big summer break, others take a few days here and there during the year. It’s up to you to choose option which suits you best. But the most important is to disconnect yourself, when you’re on holiday: don’t answer calls from your boss and mostly don’t check your mails. Avoid going on holidays on the same vacation spots as your colleagues. 

Talk about it with your loved ones

Stress, the simple fact of talking about it, is a good way of unwinding. Talk about this with trusting colleagues, friends or family. Often you’ll realize that you’re not the only one experiencing stress, which shall help put things in perspective a little. In the most advanced cases, you can also go and see a therapist, why not? 

Talk about it with your boss

It could be interesting to talk about your stress with your boss. If he isn’t too much of an idiot, he’ll understand that a collaborator who feels good is a productive collaborator. And on the contrary, a stressed collaborator doesn’t possess 100% of his means. Therefore, it is in his interest to support you and help you manage your stress at work. Alright, let’s be honest, at times it’s difficult to talk about stress with one’s boss and not all of them are as understanding. In the most serious cases, perhaps, it’s simply time to change companies.

More informations here 14 ideas to make your company more eco-friendly